Parental Leave Pay while travelling outside Australia

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To get your payment while outside Australia you must continue to meet the qualification rules for Parental Leave Pay.

There are rules about whether your Parental Leave Pay can be paid when you travel outside Australia.

Rules for Parental Leave Pay outside Australia

If you leave Australia to live in another country, your Parental Leave Pay will stop.

If you are an Australian citizen or hold a permanent visa or special category visa and you leave Australia temporarily, you will continue to receive Parental Leave Pay so long as you remain qualified and your absence does not exceed 56 weeks.

You may be paid outside Australia for a negotiated period of up to 6 weeks if you hold one of the following visas:

a Partner Provisional visa subclass 309 or visa subclass 820

a Safe Haven Enterprise visa subclass 790, or

a Temporary Protection visa subclass 785 granted on or after 16 December 2014

for the following approved reasons:

to attend an acute family crisis, for example to visit a family member who is critically ill

for humanitarian reasons, for example to adopt a child or attend custody proceedings, or

to receive eligible medical treatment that is not available in Australia

If you leave Australia without an approved reason, your payment will stop when you leave and cannot restart.

If you leave Australia and your Parental Leave Pay stops even for 1 day, it cannot be restarted when you return to Australia.

If you're a member of the Australian Defence Force deployed overseas or the Australian Federal Police engaged in peacekeeping or capacity building activities overseas, you may be eligible for an extension of your Parental Leave Pay for up to 3 years.

When to tell us about your travel

You should tell us if you are leaving Australia and:

are going to live in another country

will be away for more than 6 weeks

have not been back in Australia for 6 weeks since your last return, or